Love Amongst Scholars, Fools and Dragons
by abcdoll3
Summary: During Tarrlok's party, Jinora sneaks away for a quick read. She didn't expect to see anybody trying to steal anything, or for a weird relationship to come from it. Eventual Jinora x Skoochy. Rating will go up for a GOOD REASON.
1. Chapter 1

Hi, so this is a Legend of Korra story. Pretty Jinora-Centric at first but I promise it'll flesh out.

My first one and it's based off of the cute-but-somewhat-cracky pairing of Jinora and Skoochy. I don't own the Characters of Avatar the last airbender, or Avatar Legend of Korra. And be nice please~

Oh and warning this does come with some spoilers for people who haven't seen episode 4 of Legend of Korra

* * *

Jinora, as she looked around at the party atmosphere, couldn't help but feel somewhat bored. Okay, make that very bored. This wasn't a party that her parents had been looking forward to. In fact, the only reason he was here in the first place was to watch out for Korra. And what politician in their right mind would leave three kids and a pregnant wife at home to go to a party held by a man he couldn't stand? Of course that meant that Jinora, as well as Ikki and Meelo, would have to go with them. Great. A political party where they couldn't have any fun. She hadn't even been able to bring a book by permission. So far, the most fun thing about this was helping Korra dress up for the occasion. It was the first time that she had ever seen her with that much hair down, not to mention that it was interesting to see this girl, a headstrong Avatar with no real sense of the world gentle, in a frock so indicative of her culture and look so ... feminine in it.

For a while, Jinora let her eyes follow Korra's fellow partygoers. One man stood out in particular. Hiroshi Sato. He created Satomobiles, the very thing that was sent to Air Temple Sanctuary as a bribe for Korra, courtesy of Tarrlok. Now Jinora was not one to immerse herself in politics completely. After all, she was but ten years old, but she did know things that involved her father's counselwork. And that included hearing about things Tarrlok has done to aggravate him. He may have crossed a line though when he showed up during dinner a few days ago. Unannounced and uninvited at that. And Ikki was right; he did smell like a lady. Many ladies at that. And for some reason, fish. But as her eyes kept on Hiroshi Sato, she soon saw he was joined by a young lady - his daughter Asami from what Jinora read in the paper - and wait. Mako.

Mako? The handsome firebender that drove Korra crazy. She recognized him from the time he came to the island. Of course she and Ikki were going to give Korra a hard time about the two of them, it was only natural. But why he was with Hiroshi Sato's daughter of all people seemed to elude her. There was another cute guy with them. He looked a lot like the fire bender, and Jinora could only guess that the two of them were brothers or something. Related at the least. Wait, that must have been the other team member on the fire ferrets. Bolin? There would be times where Jinora just happened to catch pro-bending matches on the radio if Members of the White Lotus were listening. But oooh Korra was going to be mad when she saw them together. Yes it was that obvious that she had a thing for him.

Person watching lost Jinora's interest in about three seconds, so she decided to join her sister in whatever she was doing, which was playing around with Meelo. She really did love her brother and sister, and couldn't imagine her life without the two of them. After all, they were some of the only people she got to see and play with on a daily basis. As the three of them were talking and slightly moving around, she could feel something inside of her shift. And by inside her, it was literally inside of her robe. She knew she wasn't allowed to bring a book with her to this event. Never the less, she kept one in her cape anyway. She needed to escape and push it back to a safe part of her robe. And if that involves maybe reading a page or few, Jinora wouldn't be against it.

With a soft, coy smile on her face, Jinora crouched down to her little brother's height, her chin resting on his shoulder and her arms holding him steady. "Pssst, Meelo, I'll sneak you a piece of cake if you do something for me." She said, then whispering her plan to the five year old. Something told Jinora that from the way he was reacting, he would have done it without the cake incentive, but it was just a nice little bonus. An indulgence say you will. Their parents wanted them on healthier diets than most children. This included the three of them all being vegetarians like her father and grandfather before him. However, her father did make a rather luscious fruit tart. But that was only for special occasions. "Ready? Go!" She whispered, giving Meelo a quick push in the right direction just as Tarrlok was excusing Korra away. Perfect timing, and seeing her father's face turn that shade of purple was priceless.

"Meelo no, that is not a toilet! Oh dear." And that was her cue to escape.

* * *

R & R  
And if you're looking for Skoochy, don't worry. He's coming really soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Weird. So here we go again. No Scoochy yet but I promise he's gonna be here soon

Here I am again. once again, Characters don't belong to me.

* * *

Moving rather quickly, she made her way to an abandoned room in the hall. "You've created a little monster Jinora." She said, giggling to herself as she watched her father trying to - no. What she had instructed Meelo to do was far too horrid, far too disgusting , far too perturbing for the average Republic City citizen to conceive. That's why it came so easily, so brilliantly. Luckily, more people were paying attention to other guests than they were of a man trying to get his son away from all of tha - again, too disturbing to even fathom. Ikki was laughing her buns off and her own mother, even though she was trying to help him out, couldn't help but laugh at her younger son's exploits.

Jinora stretched her arms out, making sure to not make the book shift any more. She didn't know much about her sibling-to-be. All she knew about it was that it was going to be another airbender. That's it. She didnt' even know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. At least her mom had some names picked out. Her mother likes Lushi and Saharu. Her dad? Well he likes whatever mom would at this point. After all, he got to name her Jinora, and her mom got to name Ikki and Meelo. The next one's his, but he's keeping those names a secret.

_"Alone at last" _She thought as she finally sat down and carefully removed the book out of her robe. Something should have told her that going into a room that primarily outdoors at night alone was a horrible idea. And considering that Republic City wasn't the most ideal place to walk the streets at night, especially with the Equalists all around, this screamed all kinds of wrong to Jinora. But there were few times where Jinora favored her cravings over practicality. Tonight was one of those times. Slowly, she pulled the book out of her robe carefully, letting the leather cover grace her fingertips.

_Love Amongst the Dragons._ It was simply one of Jinora's favorites, despite it being almost 200 years old. Strangely enough, she found this in her father's study. A study filled with factual books laced with history and nomadic culture , anthologies of her grandparents' adventures and other books for the rest of the family in case they got bored. Those books were the ones that Jinora had gone through already, and is getting close through the first fourth of the stories during the 100-year-war. Then this little beauty caught her eye. She hadn't seen it before, and asked her father where she got such a fine piece of work. Tenzin casually dismissed it, saying that she'd have to ask the Firelord that question.

Jinora had found the book three years prior, right before the succession of the firelord. So this meant Firelord Zuko, the other founder of Republic City was still in power.

_Delicate hands craddled the leather much like she did when Ikki and later Meelo were babies. After all, this did have it's own life. It's skin, spine, layers. All still there, but weathered. Much like the former firelord Zuko himself. But the energies were completely different. Even at his age, the firelord still had a sense of youth to him, a calm energy that was in full control of itself. Jinora, from reading in history books, could tell that this must have taken much patience. This, however, was different. This book had a passion, an almost violent nature to it. Like its origin, it was full of fire. But as much as the Firelord was a calm, pure flame, this book was anything but. Thinking about it too much would have probably burnt her hands. _

_She felt Firelord Zuko's smile directed at her. "Jinora, you've grown. You look like your mother" he said. _

_She looked up, being polite. "I have. And thank you" She said, not afraid to look at his face. When she was younger, she was told to not look at his scar, but it's come to the point that Jinora could look at it without really noticing that it was something not normal. After all, she always saw the statue and thought nothing of it, so why should it matter on the person? The book was still behind her back, but it wouldn't be for long. _

_"Firelord Zuko, - "_

_"No need to be so formal. Uncle Zuko's just fine." He said, leaning back some in his throne. That's right. He said he was planning on resigning as Fire lord by summer's end. Jinora would need to get used to calling someone else the fire lord. _

_"Okay. Uncle Zuko. I have to ask you something." Jinora hesitated for a moment, but couldn't think anything bad of showing it to him. So she exposed the book from behind her. "Why did you give this to my dad?" She asked. _

_"That. That I gave to your grandfather, kind of as a parting gift when Republic City was built." He said, scooting up some and standing straight. He was clearly deep in thought, but not trying to give off any bad vibes. __"You know, when I was your age, my mother used to take me to see the play for this. It was butchered every year, but what can you expect of the Ember Island Players?"_

_"Then why give it away?"_

_He frowned for the first time that they started speaking. "Sometimes, there are memories one has to relieve and make way for more." She saw a sadness that she knew she didn't mean to bring in. Jinora knew that reading the old stories was a priority "I was never much of a reader in my youth anyway. I thought this would suit someone of your tastes." He said, petting her head. "Better take care of that. It's old." He said getting some tea. _

_"Thank you." She said, now smiling rather widely. Not only was this a really old book with a lot of different cultural and historical references, but she could pay attention to something else while her dad was teaching basics to Ikki and her mom was taking care of Meelo. Most of the other children of the Air Acolytes were boring anyway._

__Reliving that moment in her mind was a good way to appreciate the nature of this book, and it would have been perfect, had Jinora not suddenly heard a crash.

* * *

I wonder what that crash could be? I need feedback please!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi! I really appreciate what people've said, even if it hasn't been a lot of people. So the moment you've all been waiting for, ladies & Gents, Skoochy! Sorry it's taking me so long. I had the toughest time figuring out how to get him in

* * *

Silk. Furs. The smell of Moon Peach and Jasmine perfumes and of course, the underlying smell of things they knew didn't come easy or without a price.

Skoochy didn't have to experience things first hand to know what they were. After all, he was a man of information, so he had enough to know what all of it meant. Even from the early works, before anything was officially set up, he could easily tell that this was some kind of gathering, but not just for any old person. Naturally, as they came closer to the scene, the smells were getting stronger, specifically the smells they were looking for. The smells of food.

It wasn't often that Skoochy saw so many people, and smelt so much perfume in the air to mask the edible gold it hid. But obviously, this would be something to hide, or else they would just leave all of the food for whatever this was outside.

The news of a party always meant easy picking as far as people to raid that party. Unfortunately, when there were a bunch of kids willing and able to raid a party for food, there was a good chance that most of those kids would be running their yappers about how things would go down. And that yapping would stop most of the time when they got closer. But of course, there was that one kid who couldn't hide his excitement as well as others. In this case, it was a kid about six or seven years old with big brown eyes, a missing tooth and baby skin. "Ya, shut up already." Skoochy said, flicking the kid's nose until he got quiet again.

He couldn't really blame the kid though. He knew for a fact that the kid, Pavo, hadn't eaten for a while. His parents weren't any help with that. They had long factory jobs and would rather invest their time in the latest pro-bending bets than their own kid. Things haven't gotten to the point of no return for him like they had for many other kids, Skoochy included. So this made him believe that if he gave some of the food his parents did manage to remember to get, he'd get some back. He learned that the hard way, and that wasn't just from the other kids. Rumor had it that he had to watch them eat when they ever decided to remember about him. "You remember going on here anyway?" Skoochy suddenly asked. He already knew the answer to the question, but he was kinda feeling bad about shushing him so harshly earlier.

Pavo nodded. "They're havin a party for the new Avatar or something" He said.

A look of feigned surprise came onto Skoochy's face. "No kiddin? I saw her 'n Mako bout a week ago or so. Looking for Bo' after he went to do somethin for Shady Shin's guys." He said, not caring about the looks he got from some of the other kids. He was gonna talk to the kid now ; what was the point of not having at least one person talking? But that was one kid, and as soon as Mako and Bolin's names were spoken, ears perked up like crazy. Great. Bring up the two guys they knew who made it out and did well none the less. "Their team's going into the championships ya know." He said.

"Still the dumbest name for a team I've heard." Tack, a kid with too many freckles and a look that made people angry, complained. What the hell's a fire ferret anyway?" He asked.

"That monkey-rat thing Bolin found a while back. The one you wanted to turn into stew" Skoochy said, suddenly getting quiet again. They were here, and there wasn't any real need for words in case it was emergency or something. It wasn't like their main goal ever changed, and all they had to do was avoid security guards. Even the metal bending police force wasn't exactly a threat to them. That was the kind of threat that people who had something to lose, feared. Pointing out directions to certain members, it didn't take for the group of say, ten to twelve kids to dissipate into the kitchen area. With an armful of what seemed to be Komodo Rhino sausage, he found that he was one one of the first ones to make it back to the outside. They shouldn't be taking so long. They've hit bigger places than this in less time. What was taking them so long?

Taking a tarp - that he stole from the party - he wrapped up the sausages and tied them up. The last thing that anyone needed was something like a lemur or a flying raccoon getting into the food. That didn't take long at all. Looking around and leaning against the wall of what seemed to be cardboard boxes, Skoochy was officially bored. Even though it had only been a few seconds since he wrapped up things, it seemed like a long time for someone like him. And that wasn't just from growing up the way he did, Skoochy just wasn't entertained that easily. Unless there was money involved but that was a different story altogether.

More seconds passed, and they kept adding to Skoochy's frustration. This was ridiculous. They were taking too long! Why didn't he assign someone on guard for something like this? More importantly, why didn't he gather older kids for this? Wait, he was one of the oldest anyway, and he wanted to be able to boss people around without any real complaint or questions. He looked at the boxes again. He thought about using one of those boxes as a place to carry all the food, but then remembered that these weren't the most stable of boxes and they probably had holes or something. Having food spill everywhere was almost worse than having critters get in them. Plus what would people really think if they saw a bunch of kids with big boxes full of food.

_"Stupid boxes."_ Skoochy frowned, rearranging them for the sole purpose of entertaining himself.

That's when he saw her.

* * *

Cliffhanger? Yay! And It takes time for people to meet, none the less fall for eachot-oops! :P  
R & R please!


	4. Chapter 4

Love at first sight? Naa, too easy.

* * *

_That's when he saw her. _

If this was anything to get rid of boredom, this was it. No, watching people wasn't normally Skoochy's definition of fun, but he really didn't have anything better to do until the rest of the guys came back. So he kept his eyes on her.

She couldn't have been any older than him, but her actions would have given off the impression that she was. The only people Skoochy had seen biting the corner of their lip while reading, were adults. Well that was because he didn't know a single kid who honestly found any enjoyment in a book.

Bangs covering her face, with a the rest of her hair in a bun. Occasionally she'd put those bangs out of her face so she could read better probably. He wasn't smitten or anything, but she was definitely one of the cuter girls he'd seen around these parts. She also seemed familiar couldn't of been one of them. No, her robes were too formal , and her skin was too pale and polished. Moon Peach skin, he heard it called by poets and common street men alike. The skin wasn't completely pale but it had enough rosiness in the correct areas. It worked for hair that dark. The only thing that did was tell Skoochy that she had a home, a good home at that.

So she wasn't one of them. Of course she wasn't. Besides, Skoochy would have remembered a face like that. She must have been someone attending the party or something. His focus, instead of going to her face, went down to what she was reading. The cover, as abused and old looking as he remembered a head mistress at one of his previous orphanages, didn't have any pictures or words. The only thing he could barely make out was the lettering on the spine. He saw a giant L, but that was pretty much it.

All of his person watching seemed to take more of his focus than he thought, for a few more faces joined him. "Well well look what we have here." Tack said, a smug look on his face. Leave it to the guy that Skoochy could barely tolerate to find him in a state like this.

"Why's she reading?" Pavo, as well as some of the other boys had joined him in hushed whispers.

"She don't look like one of us"

"She's not. I've seen her in a paper or something."

"Shaddup! She can probably hear us." Skoochy said, getting tired of the constant questions, as well as trying to keep them out of earshot. Unfortunately, that did nothing to stop the rest of the kids from hovering over the boxes. And to most of their surprises, the boxes came crashing down, leading to a bunch of kids spilling out like the marbles that they'd use for leisure and bets. _"Stupid boxes!"_

Immediately, the girl's book closed as she let out a surprised gasp. Surprised, but not afraid. Skoochy, for the first time, was getting a good look at the girl's face when she put her book back in some kind of pocket in her robe."What are you doing?" The surprise came out of her face as soon as she didn't get her answer. It was replaced with annoyance. "I said, what are you doing?" Her hands were crossed, that face not as cute now that she was angry.

"Mind your own business, hogmonkey." Tack shot back.

The girl raised a brow. Offended but more disgusted than sad read her face. "This is my business." None the less, she was standing her ground. Skoochy didn't know whether he liked the fact she had enough in her to think she could face off against one of them, or just annoyed that she thought she had some kind of authority over them. The latter thought eventually took off.

"Look, if you don't buzz off back into your little party, you'll be sorry." He said, wondering how well that would honestly work.

"And what do you plan to do?" It didn't.

Tack suddenly came forward. "Hey Skooch, want us to take care of this little elbow leech for ya?" He said, cracking knuckles. Did it seem extreme for someone to threaten a girl younger than them? Maybe to the normal folk, but these were not normal situations, particularly for the rest of them.

With a scoff, Skoochy handed Tack the sausages he confiscated earlier. "Na, I can take care of a prissy little panda lily all by myself. Y'all go." He said. They didn't ask questions. Most of them would have taken the girl on anyway, following the exact steps as Skoochy.

Now it was the two of them, alone in an alley. "I'm warning ya. You really don't want me to hurt a little girl like you." And here's where he should have stopped. "It's so funny when common folk try to act all tough, specially when they're priss littl What the-" Precisely why he should have stopped. A rather intense gush of wind knocked him right off of his feet and into a box. Skoochy was really starting to hate those damned things.

"Prissy. Adjective. In regards to a person or their mannerisms, fussily and excessively respectable. Or in a respect of clothes, over adorned with details such as ruffles and bows" She said, in a tone that was both mocking and pissed off. But that wasn't what caught Skoochy's attention. It was the fact that he knew it wasn't a windy night, and even so winds in Republic City were never that strong.

"Airbender" Now those were a rare sight. None the less, Skoochy wasn't exactly starstruck. "Looks like you want to do things the hard way." he said with a sigh as some of the ground from under him started coming up in mini-mountain figures. If it was a fight that she wanted, a fight she'd get.

* * *

Make them fight instead? Much better idea lol

Once again, Read, Review, and because I'm suckish with action scenes, be nice!


	5. Chapter 5

Forgive me, because I can't write a fight scene worth crap. Plus this is a ten year old girl and twelve year old boy in an alley way outside of a party...

There might be other fight scenes in the future, but I think this might be the only scene with two benders going at each other.

* * *

It wasn't really part of Jinora's character to start fights with her brother and sister, so starting a fight with a random earthbending street urchin seemed to be the last thing someone like her would do. Yet here she was, in a fighting stance, seeing mini rocks joining her opponent's side. The first thing that she noticed was his stance. She heard traditional works on Earth Bending, and most, if not all techniques required a solid stance. This also included strong moves with enough mass and power to bring to mind Earth itself, yet somehow able to land back with grace. Of course, when he started moving, it was a different story. He was unusually light on his feet for the earth benders she had read about.

It was hard to say who was at an advantage at the moment. Normally, Jinora thought her own agility would give her an edge, but she never really did any kind of face off against any other kind of bender, none the less fighting in an alleyway and trying to keep as quiet as possible. How old were those scrolls again? Jinora didn't have time to think as a chunk of rock the size of her fist came towards her face at an alarming speed. She managed to avoid that one, but had her work cut out for her avoiding the ones that came straight after.

The thing that probably bothered her the most about this was the smug look on the boy's face. "Not gonna fight me?" he asked.

"I don't fight if I don't have to." Jinora shot back, jumping rather high as a much larger rock came toward her. She was able to make it, but her book was nowhere to be seen. She gasped. The very book she took care of much like she would a child, was now under that rock, it's spine being crushed by the mass. She could feel her face get red, her cheeks burning and her heart pulsing. Nobody crushed one of her books like that! "And now I have to." she said, restraining the anger in her voice. That anger went into the air slice she was able to make in his direction. This would have been much easier with her glider.

He wasn't letting up, much to Jinora's frustration. Air formed a ball in her hands and she waisted no time in shooting it. It was a mirror of what the boy was doing earlier, but she was shooting air instead. Believe it or not, balls of air could have a certain effect on a person, and could really hurt if they were used in a situation like this one.

Jinora thought things were doing well, but then he had to pull up a wall in front of himself. The wall wasn't that high but it reached to where she couldn't squeeze through it. "That all you got sweetheart?" He said, followed by shooting earth discs at her. _"Back to avoiding and evading."_ Jinora became cross as the discs came at a faster pace than the rocks. She tried to look for a weakness, any pattern she could disturb. The situation was that she was avoiding earth discs that came after her no matter where she was. She could dodge as much as she wanted , but she didn't know how much of a move she could do.

But she wasn't going to give up. This was her first fight and she wanted to learn as much as she could from it. Plus for some reason, she didn't want him to win. May it be the spirit of competition or how Jinora never left anything unfinished, or how smug the boy looked before their match, she really wanted him to lose.

She soon had an idea. If she could get high enough, and behind that wall, it would be too much of a hassle to shoot from behind him, and she'd do something by the time he got up a new wall. Now that she had some kind of idea formed, all she needed was an opportunity to attack.

Conveniently enough, he was getting tired and actually stopped for longer than he normally would. In that moment, Jinora formed a big enough ball of air to scooter on and got over the wall. Without waisting any time, Jinora gave a huge push of air, knocking the boy over to the wall "You know, for someone who talks up a storm, you're not very good" She said. Jinora actually giggled after saying that. She wasn't one for taunting unless it had to do with Korra's obvious crush on her cute firebending friend but that was romantic and not in an actual fight. Jinora, on her high of competitive happiness, went over to the boy just to see his condition.

What she got was more than his condition. "But of course, I win in the end." He said, another smug look on his face. What was he even talking about? "Unless you don't want this to be used as fire feed." Jinora gasped as she saw what exactly he was mentioning in fire feed. Her book. Her over 200 year old book was now being carelessly handled. She reached for it, but he banged the already damaged treasure against the wall, cracking the spine. "I hold the cards now sweetheart" again with that smug look. "You can either pay me for this and let me go or ... that's it. Because I'm more than willing to get a few hours of fire out of this. " He said.

* * *

Yep. Not a real cliff-hanger but whatever. Sorry this took a while, but R&R anyway~


	6. Chapter 6

Yep, and now that the fight scene's over. Back to actual plot development lol  
Sorry it took me so long to update and whatnot, but I've been busy and writers blocked.

* * *

Oh now she was getting angry. In the old stories, she read about how her grandfather would get intensely emotionally distressed when someone hurt Gran-Gran or Appa, the flying bison that helped find Oogi's ancestors. At that time though, he would go into the Avatar state, because he was able to do that. Jinora was not the Avatar, therefore she could not go into the Avatar state and cause doom and destruction. Sadly, her form of expressing the incredible emotional distress she was going through at the moment, rendered down into screeching As if each injury were lined in paint, Jinora could see every new injury, rip and tear her book was getting. "Give it back!" Forget trying to keep her cool, this was an entirely new kind of emotion. This wasn't the kind of anger she was used to, and she certainly didn't know how to use that to fuel her fighting or her skills. A helpless kind of anger.

"Why? You had to start attacking me."

"What? You started this."

"And as a gentleman, I should end it." Oh now he was calling himself a gentleman?

Strangely, this was starting to remind her of when Meelo was much younger, and decided he wanted to throw tantrums to get what he wanted. Jinora learned quickly that the boy could easily be persuaded with things as simple as words. Maybe this was no different. "What exactly's your price?" She asked. Her eyes locked solely on the book as he scanned over it himself. At least he wasn't doing horrible things to it like he said he was.

He was doing a careful examination of the book. It surprised her, considering that he wasn't in any hurry to appraise it earlier before he started to play with its life and whatnot. "I don't know. This looks so dumb, you probably couldn't even get a single yuan off this." And of course he had to say something like that.

_"Remember your breathing Jinora. He's just trying to egg you on. You lost your temper before, now don't let him think he won."_ She thought, and with a rather deep breath in, she opened her mouth. "For your information, that book is almost two hundred year old text and it's probably worth a lot." She said, crossing her arms and watching his face. It hadn't changed from that smug look, but there was a gleam in his eye.

"Really? What's that thing about anyway?" The sudden interest only lead Jinora to one conclusion. She was never going to get her book back.

"It's called Love Amongst the Dragons." She said. It was strange, she would normally say it with such pride. In a case like this however, it seemed like the last thing she wanted to talk about. None the less, it was here.

"Sounds like a stupid love story."

Jinora frowned. "Of course someone like you would say something like that." she said, her arms uncrossing. The look in his eyes changed again. He looked angry.

"What do you mean by someone like me? Cause I'm not some pampered, dainty princess?" He asked, his voice unchanged. Jinora wasn't fooled though. That look in his eyes made her think of what she could have said to make such an impression. At the same time, she was just as insulted as he was.

"What makes you think I'm pampered?" She asked, waiting to see what he had to say. Jinora didn't know how good of an answer it would be, but she would at least give it a chance, right?

"You're at this party aren't you?" And that chance was completely wasted.

"My dad's a councilman." She paused. This was strange; for the first time, she had to explain her lineage, her family's political role in Republic City's life. And Jinora wasn't deaf. Ever so often, she'd hear rumors, whispers about how Republic City was getting worse and worse off ever since her grandfather died. She knew that her father really was trying to make things better. This was only her beliefs though. Because now, she was faced with what she saw as the result of the neglect of the city, and how corrupt things have gotten. Her heart felt heavy, and it wasn't from anger, or physical exhaustion either. This was pure guilt, guilt that she had no clue where it came from. She knew she had nothing to do with the instability of Republic City, but this was pain. There's no way that gravity was the source of her problem; that was probably the worst part. "Even so, it's not like he showers us in stuff." She said, her face dropping as she sunk down on the step she had been reading on. It's not like it would have mattered now.

"What's that stupid book about anyway?" For a split second, Jinora swore the boy's eyes showed regret too. But trying to change the subject was a good enough idea, so she went along with it.

"You want to know?"

The boy crossed his arms. "It's not like me to lack information." He said, that confidence back.

"Well I know at least one thing you don't know." Jinora challenged the boy. She didn't know why she did it again.

"And what would that be."

"My name." Was it weird that the two of them had been talking and hadn't revealed anything like their names yet? Maybe, but that just made it all the more interesting.

"I'll make you a deal. I'll give you back your book, if you-" Jinora was listening to this deal, or anything else that didn't have a load of violence. Too bad the boy never got to finish his sentence.

"Jinora, there you are!" Ikki came, her mouth moving at a mile a minute as usual. But this wasn't the kind of face of over excited happiness that Jinora normally saw on her sister's face. This kind of excitement on Ikki's face had more worry, like if a building was exploding and people came to watch, or reading a gruesome part of a novel. "C'mon! The weird lady-smelling councilman with the three ponytails tricked Korra into joining that thing he wanted her to join."

"The task force?" Jinora heard about it at dinner the other night, but she thought Korra wasn't going to go through with it. Oh yeah, Ikki said she got tricked into joining. This was a truly interesting turn of events after all.

"Yeah! C'mon, dad wants us to leave!" Ikki wasted no time in dragging Jinora away inside, but Jinora knew she was forgetting something very important.

"Ikki wait!" Her book! But it was too late. The boy was gone and so was Love Amongst the Dragons.

* * *

Yeah not the best chapter ending but I like it. I hope you do too.


	7. Author's Note and Update

Aiyah!

Well it's been what, ten days since the last time I updated? Well there's a good reason why I haven't put up a new chapter yet.

Well my grandma flew in from TX and she's not one of those ... independent grammies. None the less, I love her and my brothers are too lazy to help take care of her.

Also, my little brother just graduated from high school and there's been all this hullabaloo about a graduation party (he's the baby of the family) That means a lot of family also flew in and stuff like that.

Point is, lot's a busy shit happening.

But on a good note, I can't believe how well received this story's become. I also can't believe how long it's going to be. The last time I wrote something really long was a Naruto crack fic and that was only 15 chapters. So Idk how long this will be, but I hope you guys will be there through the whole thing.

Plotting Note:

Even though I started this story to take place episodes ago, it's going to keep it on Jinora and Skoochy, like she'll probably not know who Tahno is and didn't get to see Lin be Spiderman. Like, she'll know Asami and will like, hear about things but I doubt she'll be personally involved with most of the show cannon, minus all the Asami stuff.

Thank you guys, and I promise to get one up soon !


	8. Chapter 7

Yes this took me a fuckload of time. I apologize wholeheartedly but I wanted Legend of Korra to finish so I could stop being so damn behind on everything...

I don't own Legend of Korra (If I did, there'd be a very important change to the finale) but I do love it.

* * *

_"And I thought the time with the imported Penguin Meat was a close one ..."_ Skoochy thought as he evaded the grounds. It was bad enough that those two girls saw him, but if anyone else had, he probably would've spent the night in the slammer. And all that food would'a been wasted on Tack. He thought back over to the girl who came later. She seemed a little younger, maybe Pavo's age. She looked kinda like the other girl, but Skoochy really didn't care at this point. He was just glad her loud mouth was a distraction for him to escape.

It didn't take long for Skoochy to get at least a little tired. Yes he'd ran before, and had been in worse situations where he needed to run harder, but in this case, he could afford a five minute sit. It was then when he looked down at his hands, and how one of them had something clinging by the brink. The book. How did he not notice he had it still? He swore he dropped it when he started running. "What makes you so special again?" He said, looking down at the cover. It was just as old and crinkled as he thought it looked from the short distance. However, he was able to read the whole title instead of the first letter.

"Love Amongst the Dragons" He said. The dragon part sounded somewhat interesting so far. He kept looking, seeing anything that could interest him and finding a reason to honor his promise. The illustration had two dragons making some kind of back to back heart or something romantically dumb like that, not to mention he barely could make out the caption at the bottom of the illustration. "It is said that the only thing to connect those, come in small few. Life, Death, Emotions, and the Spirits we are born with. These spirits form bonds that last the test of them." Great. Nothing interesting at all. Except for the death and spirits. Spirits could cause some damage, if some of the things he heard were true. If that was the only thing that was keeping his interest, he didn't know what else about it was worth keeping that end of the bargain.

Skoochy groaned, putting the book back in his vest pocket and making his way to the station. It wasn't about the book. It wouldn't have made a difference if the book was a glove or a piece of chicken. Unless it was Yuan, Skoochy would keep things safe. It was just the way his word was kept. By the smell of food, Skoochy could tell he was close to the rest of the guys. So he straightened his appearance some. In normal circumstances, he'd roughen it up to make him look like he was in a huge fight, but this was a special case. After all, his opponent was a girl.

"Hey Skoochy!" Pavo recognized him as he made his way to the fire and the meat that was roasting over it. "What happened to you man?" he asked.

Skoochy would have answered him, but of course, Tack opened his mouth. "Yeah, I thought you were gonna be all, I can take care of a prissy little panda lily myself" This stirred up some chuckles, as well as some inspection of Skoochy's appearance from the younger kids..

"Looks like the panda lily got in a few jabs."

"More than a few!"

"Shut up before your face looks like the inside of a Rabaroo." Skoochy knew that the threat didn't make a lick of sense, but it made the younger kids shut up.

"Who was that girl anyway?" Pavo was the first to ask anything after that.

"Beats me kid." And technically, that was the truth. The last thing Skoochy remembered about her was really close to the first thing. She came in an instant, and was gone just as quickly. Too bad. He was going to offer her her book back if she told him her name.

He got it anyway.

Jinora.

Now that wasn't a name he heard every day. Something told him that she was either an only child, or the oldest. Maybe the latter, because the girl who came and got her looked like family. Jinora wasn't one of those names people threw away, especially in a place like Republic City. This was a place where names got you everywhere. Names, and turf but mostly names. Besides, from things Skoochy heard from that hobo with the really nice bush in the park, no way a pretty face like that couldn't come with an ugly name. Wait, did he just think she was cute?

"She was kinda cute Skooch'. Hope you didn't have your eye on her or something" Tack confirmed what he was just questioning, and pissing him off at the same time.

Another boy started howling. "Yeah right. Like a princess like that would wanna deal with our man Skooch." That particular comment made Skoochy think back to their conversation from earlier.

**_"Even so, it's not like he showers us in stuff." _** That was the line Skoochy probably remembered the most out of that whole thing. It wasn't necessarily what she said, but the way she said it. She looked sick. Real sick. Like the kind of sick one would get after seeing a member of the Agni Kai Triad fish intestines out of a guy they just burnt to a crisp. Skoochy personally hadn't seen something like that before, no, but he heard stuff. The kind of stuff that one only could have said if they had seen it. And hearing stuff was better than not having anything on it at all. Especially for a man who wanted his information.

"It's not like she'd deal with Tack's ugly mu-"

"She's not a princess!" Skoochy said with much more bite than needed for a comment like that. The guys were quiet for a second, and Skoochy immediately wanted to take back what he said.

"... Where'd that come from Skooch?" The howling boy from earlier said.

If only Skoochy could answer that for himself. "I dunno..." In a weird way, it was like he was trying to defend her. But why? Skoochy didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't help it. She did something to him. She beat him - got a lucky few shots - in a fight between them and still Skoochy wanted to defend her? A girl who could clearly defend herself. This was bad. Real bad. Skoochy immediately put his attention on the fire. Surely enough, the Komodo Rhino sausages were able to get rid of those thoughts. And those weren't the only things warming up. Someone managed to get some decent sized fish and something from one of the water tribes. Tiger Seal probably. It smelled amazing, whatever it was.

"I just remembered who she was! She's the Avatar's granddaughter" Pavo said, overly excited for his newfound discovery. But it did peak everybody's - including Skoochy's - interest.

"The Avatar's a teenager, stupid" And the Howling boy - who's real name was actually Luó now that Skoochy was able to remember it - said. Clearly he went against his name, for he wasn't that smart.

Tack brought himself into the conversation. "No the one before her. The one who's got the huge statue on Aang Memorial Island" And this didn't piss off Skoochy. He wondered what it would be like sitting on that bald marble head. It was probably fun. He should try it some time.

"So the guy who pretty much made Republic City." Luó finally understood.

"So that explains her being an airbender" Skoochy mumbled. Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed.

"What was that?" And by Luó none the less.

Skoochy shrugged it off. "Nothin you need to know about. Now let's eat." He said, grabbing some of the sausage. He didn't care how long it had been on the fire while he was there. It probably had all that time to cook on its own while he was gone. The rest of the boys started eating too.

That entire collection of food, a few betting games and some urban legends later, most of the boys were asleep. But Skoochy was left looking up at the sky. Well more at the flame that came out of Zuko's Statue. He stared at that thing until his eyelids and body couldn't handle it anymore, and he went to sleep - that book still in his pocket. Keeping his word was going to be an interesting challenge. But who could ever think Skoochy was boring?

* * *

The chinese character for Luó is supposed to mean smart or clever I think. Oh well. Could this have been shorter? Yes, but that wouldn't be fair to you guys!

So R & R . You don't have to, but it'd be a happy clam if you were. Plus you guys wanna know what happens, Ne?


	9. Chapter 8

For the people who're as patient as peaches, or impatient as sour plums, here's the next chapter~

Like I said before, I don't own the characters: Mike and Brian do.

* * *

It had been days since Skoochy got possession of this book. Days and days and he still didn't understand the thing, none the less read more than a page of it. Even the back cover didn't make any sense, and that was the only part of books he'd even read. It was official; the book didn't have any purpose for him. Oh well. He could have just burned it already and made for fire. Why he didn't was only a matter of upholding his word. To a girl he only met once. And probably would never see again. Yeah, he was gonna burn it when he got back.

Meanwhile, Skoochy found himself in the park. He'd have to watch his step here. Despite it being against the law or whatever, some of the kids that could fish, would. He himself was a decent fisher but he never had anything to fish with unless he went into the water. But that wasn't the only thing to look out for. There was always a guy here; he was pretty okay but if people even saw him looking at his bush, he'd go into a deep story about the Park Wars of Republic City, and the many he had to defeat all for a bush. And that would probably lead into his past. At least the telegraph story was better than the bush one.

A cold breeze brought leaves with it around the park, passing Skoochy on the way to the ground. It was going to be winter soon. They were going to have to stock up on food soon. It was a good thing that they had a constant supplier, not to mention Gommu, that hobo with the bush story, had plans for the winter that he was more than willing to share with them. But another thing Skoochy could do before winter came, was look at the leaves fall. Was he a romantic? Not exactly, but they were kind of cool. So he stopped, letting his eyes being the only thing moving until even they came to a halt at a particular sight.

_"Looks like I'm not the only one."_ He thought as his eyes rested on a park bench. The bench itself wasn't that important but the person occupying it. The person who he knew even if he could only see her back. Carefully, he went over, leaning over on that bench so their backs faced each other. "Careful Panda Lily ; We don't wanna lose another book, do we?" He asked, definitely catching her attention.

"You. You're the one from that party. The one who took my book because he was sore loser for me beating him. " Did she really have to rub that part in? It didn't matter anymore, because this was timed really well. Too well to be a coincidence, even if it was.

"And you're Jinora."

"And you're Skoochy"

Never did the sound of his own name seem so foreign until then. "Wait how do you know my name?" he asked.

"Hard to forget a name that could easily fit a weasel-rat" She said, this time with more bite and a clear representation of how she felt about the last time they met.

"Low blow Sugar Queen."

Skoochy saw her face go from ready to fight, to kind of confused. "Sugar Queen?" And something else; she didn't ask in a tone that mocked the effectiveness, but a tone that made her curious of that particular word choice.

"It's an insult, not a rhetorical question"

She turned around, getting a look of him."How do you know my name?" And the tone was back in her voice.

"I have my ways." Skoochy said, his normal confidence in his voice.

"Where's my book?" Well someone wasn't one for small talk...

"Your book? I don't seem to recall which book"

"The one you said looked like junk." He saw her turn her head around, even her body some, but not all the way. The benches here were okay, but not worth staying on there for a conversation. Skoochy would know; he's slept on one a few times.

"You havin a bad day Fire Lily?"

"First Panda Lily, then Sugar Queen and now Fire Lily? If this were any other situation, I'd say you were trying to flirt with me." Oh now she was just teasing, and Skoochy knew it. At least she was starting to lighten up.

But he wasn't flirting. Skoochy knew how to flirt - enough for his age - and if he was really flirting, she would have probably been blushing like crazy. But yeah. He wasn't flirting with her. Nope. Not at all. "Flne. Ji-No-Ra" He said, accentuating every syllable of her name as his voice was taking on the same teasing nature as her own. "Seems like you don't wanna hear my deal." He said, pulling out the book slightly, only to put it back in his vest.

The book got her attention and he knew it. "What deal?" Looks like they were finally getting somewhere.

"The deal I have to getting this piece of junk off my chest." Skoochy said, his elbows propped on the bench, his back arched slightly. Something told him that she was probably counting all of the times he called the book junk or something. That or plotting to kill him. Girls. Assassins if you're not careful. It was weird. If she was an airbender, couldn't she just like, snake the thing out of his clothes or something?

But that didn't happen. "Fine, I'll listen." Her voice was calm, kinda submissive too. Then again, she was like that when the two of them first met too. She was definitely planning something.

Skoochy extended his hand, still not really moving from his spot. "Then come with me. I'm not allowed to 'Solicit' on park grounds." He said with a sly smile. Of course, he still liked to sell things like meat and important stuff to people but that all happened under the bridges. Dirty work. Skoochy thought that it wouldn't take so long for him to get a reaction, considering that she seemed so desperate to get that book back. So why wasn't she taking his hand? "What you don't trust me?" He asked.

"That too" Ouch. What, she thought he was gonna rob her or something? Well he had her book but that didn't mean anything. "But I can't leave." She said. Her butt wasn't glued to the bench or anything, so what was keeping her?

"Why?" He asked.

She turned back to a normal sitting position. "My dad was with me, and he just went to get something." she said.

Skoochy's brow raised. "So he left you on a bench?" he asked. It took him a little bit, but he finally decided there wasn't any harm in joining her on said bench. This conversation was taking them into a dark place. A place Skoochy didn't exactly think was worth it after all.

* * *

I fail at cliff-hangers forever. I'm so sorry :( The original of this chapter turned out to be like, 3000 words and I couldn't do that to ya so I had to cut it and now it's horrible...

R & R still?


	10. Chapter 9

I wanted to say I am so sorry for taking so long with my chapters. It's literally just pure laziness and school starting and my enthusiasm for anything just being Meh.

Mike, Bryan. They made the characters. I didn't.

* * *

"So he left you on a bench?" Jinora heard the boy, Skoochy, ask as he joined her on the bench. It was obvious that he wasn't going to believe her anytime soon unless he got a proper explanation. She would have done the same in his position, even if not in those exact words.

"He wanted me to enjoy the scenery ... in any case, I can take care of myself." She defended herself. It was the truth, but something about him told her that the only way he was going to believe her was if she humored him. Maybe show him some nonexistent, insecure side of her that only he could see, or one of the many things she'd read in love stories.

"Still, seems like you're not here a lot; be kinda stupid to let a kid be by themselves anyway."

"Well I'm not a kid." Jinora shot back. "Well physically, yes I am still a ten year old bu-"

"I don't need the details. Most kids whose parents 'just went to get something ' normally never seen them again." And that's when she heard it. A particular shake in his voice. Not even a quiver, just a shake. But just like she knew even the smallest breeze could cause a difference, she had a feeling that there was at least one story behind that shake.

Jinora felt her face start to heat up again. "My dad wouldn't abandon me. Ever." It wasn't embarrassment or anger that provoked her this time, but something else. Something akin to faith.

"And why not?"

There it was again. "Only someone without any honor or consciousness to their name would abandon their child." Was that too formal? Yes but it got her point across.

"You read that from a book or something?" Apparently, Jinora wasn't the only one who thought it was too formally worded.

"No." She quickly answered, kicking at some of the grass. Silence suddenly filled up between them. Jinora, though she was fond of silence for the most part, this wasn't a peaceful silence. It was the exact opposite. "Some of my favorite book protagonists are Orphans though." she added in slowly, hoping to get some kind of response out of him, prodding him like he had done to her earlier.

"No kidding?" That worked better than expected. Even if Skoochy sounded more amused than fascinated at her statement, at least it wasn't quiet anymore.

But now Jinora was on a roll. "Like Shen was abandoned i-"

"Shen?" Skoochy asked, adjusting his hat

"Oh right. You haven't read it yet..." Jinora realized. , an awkward chuckle confirming the fact she done goofed.

The awkward silence was back again. She bit her lip slightly, trying to think of something that would constitute as appropriate conversation instead of going back to arguing about who should have the book. "Why do you want this book back in the first place? " He asked.

"It was a gift" It was all she would say for now. Maybe if he asked, she'd tell him about it. But he didn't. Instead, there was yet another awkward pause.

What was it with this moment and the awkward pauses, because the two of them were experiencing a lot of those for one conversation. "You know, I read some of this and couldn't understand a lick of it." He said,

"I could guess." Jinora said, scoffing and having that statement come out more haughty than intended.

Skoochy scowled. "Hey, I happen to be a man who knows many things." He said, showing signs of the boy she met the first time.

It didn't take long for Jinora to realize her mistake. "This book's over 200 hundred years old, not to mention mostly in vernacular specifical" She explicated, only to sigh again. He probably didn't know what that meant. "Vernacular refers to-"

"I'm familiar with the term." Skoochy nodded, kicking a rock in his seat. Now that was surprising; most of the Air Alcolytes her age had no idea what that word meant. Come to think of it, some of them about five to seven years her senior didn't know that word either. Instead of confusing her, Jinora was actually pleased with this revelation.

"Anyway, It's vernacular specific to Fire Nation Culture." She said, it coming out more cheerful than she had intentioned it. "If it helps, it certainly wasn't easy to learn." Wait how was that supposed to cheer him up at all?

"I shouldn't be surprised that you know, considering that legend says your grandpa was what, over 100 years old." "Before you ask, you're an airbender, and it doesn't take long to put two and two together. I think I know how we can settle this." "You can get this back... after you're done telling me what's actually going on in this"

"You want me to translate it." It was more of a statement than anything else, like if she was remembering what they needed from the market or something. She actually was hoping for something a little more exciting, considering that high stake bargains always seemed to be the more exciting and mean the most. At least that's from what she read.

"Yeah. Just like , the short version of basically what I tell you I've read. So do we got a deal or not?" He asked, reaching his hand out in her direction. JInora sighed. Of course she was slightly reluctant about the deal. It seemed like such a waste of such vast and truly beautiful literature, not to mention one of her favorite books of all time to try and simplify it so greatly. But it all came down to the fact that this is a small risk. And if a small risk would do it's job, it would successfully turn in her favor with the least amount of damage or excitement.

And smaller risks could eventually build up to bigger and bigger risks. The risks that Jinora knew her favorite characters would have no problem accepting. "We'd have to iron out the details but yes. We do." She said, cautiously accepting the hand. Their hands were together for only a moment before the slight tinge of worry came into his eyes. But his face settled the worry with the adjustment of his hat.

"Looks like I gotta make my leave, Panda Lilly" He said, letting go.

He was leaving so soon? "Why?" She asked.

"Well seeing that the guy walking this way has a giant arrow on his head, that's probably not a good sign." Skoochy was quick to answer, as he tipped his hat in acknowledgement.

That was supposed to be a sign of danger? "Are you serious? That's my dad." Actually, yes. Yes it was. "Oh. You should probably go." She barely had her head turned to make sure it was really her dad before turning back and seeing that he wasn't there anymore. But she turned herself to face Tenzin, who was back with what looked like Republic City Legislation papers, Law books and more than certain, ingredients used for egg custard tart.

"I'm back." Tenzin said, the signs of exhaustion clear on his face. "I hope you weren't waiting too long Jinora." It wasn't primarily her own entertainment he was concerned about, and Jinora knew that. It was her safety that made him ask. Jinora wasn't surprised; her father had always been concerned, if not overly dedicated to his position on the council ever since she was born, but the rumors she heard about someone in Republic City trying to exterminate bending made it absolutely positive that her father couldn't be blamed for his stress. But stress aside, Jinora wished that he could trust her more.

"No. Just enjoying the scenery."

* * *

Meh. I'm naughty. Bad author. Bad. Anyway, if you still have faith in meh, R&R


End file.
